Oblivion

Saw Oblivion, a sci-film from the early 2010s, a time rich with good, high-concept sci fi. This one has Tom Cruise in some kind of glass-and-white-plastic Apple™-inspired future where aliens have landed on Earth and are running rampant. Tom and lady friend have to protect the water-vacuums that are sucking up the oceans before they finally evacuate to one of Saturn's moons. Sounds nice, huh?

Tom makes an offhand comment early in the film about his "mandatory memory wipe" which implies some seriously heavy-handed control over his life. It also evokes the title, Oblivion, which means not only missing but forgotten. Also, when we see the aliens, they're well-obscured, decorated in feathers, and move suspiciously similarly to how a stuntman might shamble about. So, it is immediately apparent that things are not what they seem.

Later in the film the nature of experiences and identity gets played with, and we're treated to some nice visuals and some impressively threatening computer-noises. The drones (which are friendly) make dubstep-esque grows and shriek like pigs when they fly. They're great! Unfortunately the film sort of crystallizes into an action film once the showdown with the aliens starts for real. There's readings from Roman plays glorifying the noble death in the heat of battle and other such nonsense. There's that identity stuff I mentioned earlier that works to motivate the character into caring about dying well, but I feel it's not very well explored.

I'm kind of grasping at gripes here though. There's a few boring action sequences but the rest of the film is pretty to look at and fun to think about. Nicely done!